New face walks into the job

March 7 2003By Anne Crawford

Once they were chosen from our famous or celebrated: Cathy Freeman, Andrew Gaze, Marina Prior and Jo Pearson were all Moomba Monarchs. This year, Moomba Waterfest, as it has been renamed, has a relatively unknown Melburnian as its public face. Carrie Stoney, 25, is the festival's "young ambassador". The monarch, ditched in 1999, has been replaced by someone symbolising community involvement, Lord Mayor John So announced this week.

Stoney was chosen after she walked almost 2200 kilometres from Brisbane to Melbourne to air the problem of depression. The "beyond the blues" walk along the coastal road took 64 days, ending in mid January. Stoney stopped in 35 towns to talk about depression, and in some cases, offer solace to those suffering from it.

People told her to have speech training before she left. "I was like 'stuff 'em, this is me, I'm not a polished performer, I'm not an actor'," she says. "I'm trying to prove to people that you don't have to be famous or skinny or gorgeous."

And so began the journey from ordinary young woman admitting to bouts of insecurity, to ultra marathoner and public figure.

Stoney spent months securing sponsors and support for her walk but little time preparing physically. (She was given a six-month scholarship with the Victorian Institute of Sport but did not use it for three months. "I thought I'd be surrounded by super-fit athletes!") ");document.write("

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She developed 17 blisters by day four of the walk, but fitness wasn't a problem - she gained that along the way. An asthmatic, she could run a kilometre when she started and 16 kilometres by the end.

Hundreds of people approached her. Truckies stopped to donate a handful of coins or give her a "big hug". School children in Kempsey, New South Wales, stuck a row of smiley faces the length of their school fence and on light poles for 12kilometres down the road. A stranger ran up to Stoney in Brisbane as she set off and hugged her, thanking her for "being my voice".

Walking proved an easy way of bringing an often taboo subject into the open. A depressed mother who'd spent the better part of six months in bed, was inspired to organise a welcoming breakfast. Stoney was striking a chord.

Nothing prepared her for the stories she was to hear. A NSW town had lost six men to suicide in two weeks. Rural families were sharing one meal a day. Drought, bushfires, unemployment and lack of services were taking their toll.

Stoney's public talks, initially scripted and heavy on facts ("one in five people suffer from depression at some stage etc"), became the stories of people she'd met. The willingness of strangers to reveal personal details surprised and moved her. Middle-aged men told her she was the first person they'd ever talked to about being depressed.

So what would a perky young woman with a soapie star smile and background in sports administration know about depression? Stoney said it was a subject that was never broached when she was young. Then she saw former premier Jeff Kennett on television talking about beyondblue, the government-funded program he chairs.

"When I talked about it to my family and friends, all these stories started coming out. People I'd known for 10 or 25 years were living with it and I never knew." Depression, she discovered, was the silent partner to illness, marital breakdown and financial hardship.

Stoney has encountered it too. Outwardly exuberant and assured, she had long endured low self-esteem and insecurity.

"I weighed 90 kilograms when I was in years 10 and 11 - 30 kilograms more than I do now. Boys just look through you," she says.

The walk shifted something. "I realised I'm not a nobody, that no one is, whether you do something great or just go about your daily life."

Stoney hopes her role as messenger has left a "ripple" in the communities she encountered. "People had the courage to tell me their stories. You hope they realise there's nothing to be ashamed of and there are people out there who want to help."

The journey, and speaking in front of hundreds of people since, has made her feel more confident. Sort of. She'll lead the Moomba Waterfest parade on Monday at 11am, "and die a hundred thousand deaths of embarrassment", she laughs.